Back to the previous holiday, more photos. I think I'm only on Day 3 of the trip, I have lots of lots of photos left to show you. Aren't you thrilled! (Okay, if you're not, don't tell me, I'm having fun.)

These photos are all from The Chalice Well International Peace Gardens. It was hard to select which photos to share here with you. I picked out three, then added a fourth, and then another... I finally stopped at six. This was, for me, one of the highlights of our entire trip. The garden and well evoked feelings of deep reverence and awe, not to mention physical beauty. If you'd like, after looking at my photos, you can click here to find out more about the symbolism and history of the well as well as take a virtual tour of the gardens.

In this first photo I liked the pastel airy quality of the forget-me-nots contrasting with the deep color and substance of the tulips. It was more noticable in person then in the photo, but you can get a small sense of it.


Everywhere in the gardens sacred symbols from different spiritual or religious paths intermingled and co-habitated in peace and harmony. It was inspiring and... perhaps humbling is the word. The spiral was probably the most visible symbol. Simple and yet with so many layers of meaning.


This next image shows what you could call the "official" symbol of the well. It's called the
Vesica Piscis. This isn't an artsy photo so much, it's just to show you the design of the symbol.


Moss, dappled shade, stairs leading to...... what's not to enjoy.


Another spiral image - the spiral in the first photo was very small, less then two inches across. This spiral was quite large, two or three feet in diameter.


The serpentine wave of the streambed added to the restful, meditative quality of the gardens and of this photo. You are getting veeee-ry sleepy. You're eyelids feel heavy. You feel restful and......

Lots and lots of photos for your viewing pleasure! These are all from my trip. No, not that trip. Geeze, you're behind the curve. Our most recent trip, two weeks driving around the American Southwest. I decided to post a few of my favorite artsy photos here. For photos (the kind with faces in them) and a "what we did on our summer vacation" synopsis from the trip you have to go to Beach Treasure.

I liked the simplicity of this photo.


Does this say summer to you? Maybe I'll play with this one for my Simple Still Life - the July theme is "Summer". I have some other summer ones too that I didn't share today that I might use as well.


Again, simple. I liked the way the colors were simple but strong, like an O'Keefe - pale blue, dark blue, red, white, green.


I finally found something to take photos of (these were in a museum in Balboa Park) for last month's Simple Still Life Challenge - something about objects with shadows being the focus. Might be fun to do something fabricy or Photo Shop-y with it.


This is in the outdoor amphitheatre in Balboa Park. Is that redundant? Are all amphitheatres outside? Anyhoo, I just loved the subtle textures and the diagonal lines made by the seats, the shadows, and the tiles.


In Balboa Park. The water turns the sky and land upside down.


At the Grand Canyon. Doesn't this gnarled old thing look sentient to you? Perhaps a little deranged as well. Standing there for all those years, looking into the abyss, talking to the wind, mumbling to himself.


In the aspen grove on my sister's property.


And I didn't even have to Photo Shop them to get this bizarre look. They were truly painted this fuschia color. Looking out from The Four Corners.


At a rest stop in Colorado. Columbine -the state flower. The light was so pretty shining through them. It was a bizarre rest stop. They had hanging baskets of flowers and funky wooden painted signs on the lawn and wallpaper border in the bathroom with photos of pressed flowers hanging behind the toilets.


A wall downtown Ft. Collins, CO. I liked the colors and how I can't quite make out what it originally said. It looks like "LOST" but the first letter isn't a "L" but a backwards "S". William was very embarrassed his mother was taking a photo of a wall.

This blog can truthfully complain it's my most abandoned brain child. That's because I've been so busy being out there in the world gathering new experiences, seeing new sights (or old sights for the first time, or old sights through a different day or.....) that I'm almost not on the computer at all, nor have I had any time to create or use any of my new experiences in an artful way. I'm still not home. I'm currently at my son Joe's home in San Diego. We'll be here until halfway through the weekend, then it's a day and a half drive which will probably take three days because I have two more kids and a handful of grandkids to see on the way home.

But I noticed that folks have come here to visit this past week and I have been a terrible hostess, NOTHING NEW to entertain any of you. I picture you all clicking yourself across the vast desert that is the world wide web, hoping to find an oasis of creativity here at this website, only when you finally trudge in, weary, exhausted, you find NOTHING. Okay, so maybe I'm projecting some of my traveling experiences onto your life, but it's my fantasy so that's how I see you.

So I decided to pop in and comment about a few vignettes of my recent road trip.

- I get some of my best ideas for writing and images while I'm driving long distances. I've got several poems and dozens of new art ideas all swirling around in my head, clinging desperately to a neuron or two. Unfortunately it's impossible to draw or write and STILL drive. And stopping by the side of the road in 100 degree heat isn't really a fun option. Even if I didn't have a 14 year old with me who would complain so loudly that I wouldn't be able to think anyway. I kept telling myself that I'd write it all down at the next gas stop or the stop for the night, but I don't remember when the time comes. Or, you try writing in the dark with a flashlight when you have only ten brain cells still awake. (We've been sleeping in our new-to-us pop up camper)

-The southwest might be dry and hot and full of scorpions and snakes, but it's also full of sky. And beautiful landscapes everywhere you turn. Alas, the most picturesque spots seemed to be when we were driving along a cliff slope or a highway with no way to pull over and take a photo. Pout.

-Since my son and DIL have to work, during our visit here our mornings and half the afternoons are our own. I spent three hours yesterday alone in Balboa Park. I went to the San Deigo Art Museum. Spent $10 to get in and, honestly, eh. It was okay. They had an Andy Warhol exhibit there which I actually liked a lot more then I thought I would. There were a few O'Keefe's. I adore her work and have never seen any in person before, so THAT was cool! But clearly it was bad timing. Just having come back from all those museums in London and Paris - San Diego just couldn't compete. Gawd, does that sound pretentious or WHAT!

-I really enjoyed a second museum I visited, I think it was called The Charm Museum? The entire first floor was filled with displays from Carnaval around the world - you know - Rio de Janiero, Mardi Gras, and so on around the world. The top floor had a wonderful display of personal adornment from different cultures - mainly headdresses and necklaces.

-I'm still having trouble getting good shots in low lighting with this new camera of mine. I know, I know, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. Phbbbt.

I went to the trouble of turning a few photos this morning for you, even though I feel sick and yucky. But not restless. I guess that's a trade off. Hmmmm.

So, here are some more photos from Glastonbury. The first two are on the grounds of the ruins of the abbey. If I have the history right (too lazy to go double check), Henry the VIII destroyed the abbey (as well as many others) in order to add their considerable wealth and jewels to his own stash. That and I'm guessing a fit of pique at the whole "you can't get a divorce" ruling the Catholic church handed down. Even in ruins, the grounds are still a peaceful and beautiful place.


These first two photos, the one above and the one below, are all about framing and "doorways". Framing a photo is an easy way to create a focus, and the doorways always make me, as the viewer, wonder what lies beyond, in the more distant scene that we're only allowed a glimpse of.

Looking back at my holiday photos as a whole, I realize that because many of the images were shot during the middle of the day when we visited these locations (and when they're open to the public), I didn't get to play a lot with shadows. That's a shame because they can add so much to an image. Plus, the lighting is different in the early morning or late in the day. It was more challenging to take photos that showed depth or contrast without the extra help of shadows and lighting changes.


This last picture, below, I took while climbing the backside of the Glastonbury Tor. You can see St. Michael's Tower on the top and a few of the MANY steps weaving their way up the left side of the image and disappearing on the top of the hill. I like the way the horizon is sliced horizontally and how the top and bottom images seem to be working independently of each other. You expect the stairs to lead to the tower, and you still assume they do even though the in the scene they don't visually lead you there. And if you click and enlarge, you can see that tiny spot of red is William, waiting up top for his slower mother.

I've been feeling blah about computer time lately. Sorry 'bout not posting something yesterday. Today even, what you're getting is a hodge podge of images that were already set the right direction to upload without messing around having to turn them 90 degrees or anything. Not that I wouldn't have ultimately shared them, just that I'm sharing them today because they were the easiest next pics to upload.

I'd like to say I haven't been on the computer much because I'm being creative or productive but, well, I'm not a very good liar. What I've been doing is being idle, which was one of my Wordplay words on Beach Treasure today. Let's hope it's one of those useful idlenesses in which one recharges one's batteries before breaking out with new enthusiasm and energy. Uhm, yeah. Sure. It's possible.

I did a jigsaw puzzle last night. Took me all night. Went to bed at dawn. It was a 1,000 piece puzzle of a quilt. Does that count as making a quilt? Okay, nevermind. Just asking.

So, the photos:

These first two are close ups I took at Stonehenge. I took a lot of photos there and wish I'd taken even more. It's fun to see the composition, the contrast, the lines, the shapes made from both the positive and negative spaces. I think I'll have to play around with all my Stonehenge images in Photo Shop. When I eventually get around to figuring out how to use Photo Shop. (Yes, Deirdre, I know. I promised. Apparently I'm not to be trusted with that sort of promise. You know me well enough by now to have figured that out!)



This next one I took more to remember the moment then to create an image, but I think it's rather like an Impressionist painting, don't you? Of course if it was an Impressionist painting, there probably wouldn't be all those plant markers in the foreground. I dunno. Maybe. I used to hate little bits of "reality" intruding on my images like that, but recently I've started to think of them as adding to the image instead of distracting from it. So, I rather like them there. But the richness of the textures in all that green, and the figures sort nestled in the middle of it all, that's what reminds me of a painting. If not a Monet, then maybe a Robert Duncan garden scene.

The woman was sitting there on that bench with her son while I wandered around this historical herb garden on the grounds of the ruins of the Glastonbury Abbey. She sat there calmly, resting, waiting, I don't know, while her son chatted happily and without apparent pause or breath, talking, if I recall, about the plants and the day and just generally being a little spot of joy. The mother wasn't ignoring him, nor was she feeding into his chattiness. She was simply the calm at the center, occasionally adding a gentle "Ah-hum" and "Yes dear" and other loving responses.

As for the greenery, it was fun to discover that I had most of these same plants growing in my own gardens back home.

And my son? He was laying in the grass by a small broken hedgerow on the opposite side of the garden, bored, hungry, and tired of waiting for me to look at stupid plants. Ah, the beauty of reality.

I really like this next image. It's looking up through the top of what was a..... not a church, more of a look out, some sort of.... be right back..... the British National Trust website describes it as " the 15th century St. Michael's Tower" which was on the summit of the Glastonbury Tor. I like how the abstractness of it contrasts that tiny glimpse of medieval stone.

What! No new photos this morning!? Sorry. I'm feeling distracted and restless. I'm sure after a few hours of working in the garage, my selected torture du jour, I'll feel far more inspired to sit at the computer and upload photos. So check back later.

In the meantime, I picked up a copy of our county fair premium book the other day. Deadline for filing entry forms comes up in about a week and a half, but since I'll be back on the road again (damn, now I'm gonna be singing Willie Nelson all day), I have to decide what to enter before I leave. Mainly what I want to enter this year is lots of my travel photos.

I entered photos a long time go and then, because it's a lot of work to make them the proper size and frame them all, I didn't enter them again until last year. They did really well. I won lots of ribbons that is. The premium money however, was probably just enough to pay for all the expense of blowing up all the images to 8X10. So I have to be a bit selective. I'm hoping some of the images I create will serve a double duty as both fair entries and then holiday or birthday gifts. I did that with a few last year and it worked great.

I learned a lot entering last year's photos. For example, no matter how many great photos you have in one class (category for you non fair goers), it makes no sense to enter them all since you are then competing against yourself. You might want to enter several, but after that there's that point of diminishing return. Too, some categories are more popular then others, so try to find a way to make a photo work in a category with less competition and you have more of a chance of getting a ribbon. Now, I did well even in the popular categories, so that's not to say you shouldn't enter those too.

The one thing you can't plan for is subjectivity. I entered a lot of photos last year and some I thought were a sure thing didn't place while others I just entered with a "what the heck" attitude took first place! And it doesn't help to keep in mind what the judge's preferences seemed to be last year as it might not be the same judge this year.

I've helped with the hanging and judging of the textiles and quilts (and sometimes the 4-H or junior entries, the canned and baked goods, the school project entries, the florals...) for ten years now and every year or so they switch judges. I think it's actually a rule they must do that, although even if it wasn't, it only makes sense. Too, the judge has to be someone from outside the county. Another good idea because I know that by now I could probably guess with a high degree of accuracy who entered what. It's a small community and there's a lot of us "regulars" who participate in the fair.

Some judges are great, others are dumber then a rock. (No offense to rocks btw, some rocks are quite wise in my not so ordinary opinion) Anyhoo, one year I remember that the quilt and textiles judge preferred neutral tones. Everything that won a ribbon was done in either beige, brown, tan, gray, or taupe. It was NOT a good year for several fair participants who were unfairly overlooked.

Every year I tell myself maybe I shouldn't go to all the trouble to enter because it is so much work and effort and stress. But every year I do because I know I'll feel like I totally missed out if I let it pass. One year I did pass, accidentally. I missed the deadline. By one day. Head bang. The fair was still fun but there just wasn't that sense of excitement, the thrill of anticipation, of feeling like I was part of it. I am unabashedly a fair junkie.

I'm off to the garage. To toss, sort, organize, fume (why did my husband think that throwing the giant holiday candy canes on a stack of snow tires and bicycles was a GOOD idea!? And I distinctly remember using my most threatening voice when I asked him to HANG them in the rafters where they are properly stored), and if I'm lucky, sort through some ideas for the fair.

I'm finding it a lot harder then I thought it would be to decide which photos are "artsy" and should be shared here, and which are "touristy" and should be shared over at Beach Treasure. A lot of the photos could go both ways. Today I put up a bunch of Stonehenge pics over there and there were dozens more that were even more artsy. But, a decision was made.


I love gargoyles. Love'em. And since one of my sons has taken gargoyles as something of a "totem animal" for himself, I love them even more. I was really excited about seeing as many as I could while I was in England (and let's not even start with the gargoyles in Paris, which will send me into shivers of excitement - patience my bloggees, patience) and I wasn't disappointed. It was amazing how many different kinds of gargoyles there are, actually. We tend to think of only the scary monster type ones, but there were monster gargoyles and animal gargoyles and people gargoyles and bird ones and mythological ones and angel ones and.....

A lot of them, like the one above, have been weathered over the ages into something completely different from what they started out as. I'm not sure what this one was shaped like originally, but I thought he was a bit goofy and a bit frightening at the same time. Like the sludge monsters that make an appearance in movies.

Between the gargoyles and ceilings, I could have spent the entire vacation with my neck craned up. This wouldn't have been a terribly good idea however, since they also have lots of stairs and cobblestones in historical areas, which means basically EVERYWHERE. But I did look up as much as I dared. This beautiful ceiling was in a church in Lacock. This particular church had been recently used for the wedding of some relative of Camilla Parker-Bowles....does she have another last name now that she's married to Prince Charles? Anyway, the church was still filled to overflowing with the flowers and greenery from the ceremony and it made it smell wonderful. I wish, along with the visual images, I could have snapped "photos" of smells and sounds and textures as well.

I don't just love this photo, I LOVE this photo! This gentlemen (and isn't he the quintessential British elder) was caring for the cemetery with a hand clippers. Carefully bending over and taking care around the gravestones and flowers. I doubt I could even bend over like that anymore without... well, I could bend over like that. What I doubt is whether I could straighten up again afterwards.

I can't tell you how many times (which is sort of odd really, that I've been to cemeteries and/or landfills so often) I've come across cemetery caretakers in the States who follow the protocol of tossing all the flowers, fresh, faded, or plastic, into the back of a pick up truck, and dumping them at the county landfill, and then having a clean shot at running over the dead with a nice efficient power mower.

And that's when the cemetery allows you to leave things on the graves in the first place. It's no wonder that many of our ancestors and loved ones are abandoned to their graves when we are so discouraged, as a culture, from keeping them in our lives, from visiting them. I found the exact opposite at cemeteries we visited in England and Paris. There, there was much evidence of visitors and offerings at gravestones, even very old ones. I was particularly enamored of the beautiful highly enameled ceramic bouquets and statues that were left on graves in Paris. Just the fact that they weren't stolen or vandalized (although we saw evidence of vandalism, not in graveyards, but in other historical settings) was amazing.

Of course I'm generalizing here, and I'm being slightly unfair. I have seen offerings and visitors at American cemeteries. Some very touching. And at some of the smaller cemeteries, the rules are less strict. I haven't visited every cemetery in every part of the US nor have I visited more then a handful of cemeteries across the pond. But from what I've seen, it makes me think that we're a lot less comfortable with the concept of death in America then folks are in Europe. Of course they've have a lot more history of dealing with death then what we have over here. Overt history that is. I'm well aware that history in the Americas did not begin with Christopher Columbus, even if the school books pretend it did. I only mean that Europe has a much longer written and visible history then we do. As William commented while walking down the street somewhere in England "You can't walk two steps over here without bumping into something historical!"

I like posting these photos, and taking them was certainly an artistic endeavor, but I'm getting restless to get back into doing something in my studio. I think. The problem is, I'm not sure what sort of medium I want to work in and just about anything but what I have set up, which is fabric, would require purchasing, finding, co-ordinating, organizing. Sigh.

And then there's another part of me that wants to leave the studio door shut, let the cobwebs accumulate unbothered, and spend the rest of the summer in the garden. Another sigh.

Back to today's photos..... if Blogger lets me post them, which is another story, which I've already blogged about over on Beach Treasure..... grrrrr.....

I liked the wooden gate, the hedgerows and the tiny little path between them. Why were two hedgerows put so close to each other? And where does the path lead?

Doesn't this remind you of Hagrid's hut? All it needs is a window, perhaps a bit of clutter and a place to sit near the front stoop.

It was actually a building on what I believe was part of an old manor house estate. I like the way the reflection of the roof peeks out of the pond in the foreground in this photo from a farther distance.

I was surprised at how much humor and profanity there were in the statues, sculptures, tombs, and so on. Here's a sweet little cherub playing with a skull. Well, holding a skull. There was one tomb, the lid of the coffin was a sculpture of the person trying to climb out and skeletons pushing him back in. Didn't get a picture of that one as it was in a No Photos situation, but there was a lot of that sort of thing. We think, or at least I had imagined, people in the past as being either very spiritual and reverent on one hand or bawdy, superstitious and earthy on the other. It appears the reality is it was often a hodge podge of both.

We didn't eat at this place, although I had intended to come back here. There was just so many choices, we forgot and moved on. But I took a photo because I loved the name - The Moon and Sixpence. I have no idea if it's an original whimsy or from an old poem or quote, but it made me think that if it wasn't, it should have been.

This was probably the very first peek I had of one of these little tucked off to the side areas. They were everywhere - down an alley, close, narrow street, garden.... and I wish I could have taken a photo of each and every one of them.

This little statue was on a tomb in.... uhm, I think the big cathedral in Bath. Or was it just a church and not a cathedral? I can't remember what the difference was. And if it was a cathedral, then saying it was a big cathedral is redundant. I mean, are there any cathedrals that are not big?

Anyhoo, wherever she was, I liked her. She looks like she's sitting there, for eternity, thinking:

"What a life. I'm only six years old, max, so I never get to grow up. I'll never get to grow out of the children's department at Penney's. I'll never have margaritas with a bunch of college buddies. I'll never get laid. I'll never be able to... oh wait, I'm made out of stone. So, what does it matter. I'll just sit here in this dark corner of... I don't even know where I am, watching over some stupid dead guy for the rest of my life. I guess it could be worse. I'm not outside where pigeons can crap on me. Oh great. Another stupid tourist is pulling out a camera. No, I'm NOT gonna smile. Go play with the pigeons."

Artsy Photo Offering #2


I had a new camera and I couldn't be bothered by anything as silly as reading the instruction manual before the trip. So I had a lot of trouble with focus. Sigh.

This is an underground pool in the roman baths which I believe was originally used as a bathing pool. It is now used as a "offering pool" and a sign read that visitors were allowed to leave offerings to Sulis Minerva at this site. Basically, a "wishing well." I liked the way the coins, which were from many different countries, shimmered.

I did not leave a coin here, although William did, because I had surreptitiously left one at an earlier spot along the tour where a sign said the original offerings were left, deep at the heart of the spring. Here is a photo of it below. You can't really see it in the photo, but there were many coins here as well, some old, some new, most weathered, the copper ones green with age. Although you weren't suppose to toss coins here, at least it wasn't posted for you to do so, many people over the years had done so as I did, and it was nice to see that the trust which handles the site honored the sacred intent, leaving the offerings and blessings that were given.


For more travel photos, visit my Beach Treasure blog.

Long time no see! A whole month my son and I have been gone, gallivanting around the world. It was lovely, exciting, inspiring, awesome, fun, eye-opening, educational, and exhausting. Our first day back home today has been mostly about battling jet lag from the 9 hour time difference we've traveled and uploading the gabillion photos we took of and on our adventures. I decided to post one a day on my blogs until I either a) run out of photos or b) get bored and move on to another idea. If you want to see the touristy shots of William and I standing in front of things, or if you want to read about our adventures (I kept up that blog through the month's travels) visit my Beach Treasure blog. If you want to see artsy scenic photos, artsy compositions, or photos of art check here. I figured that will help keep something new on here until I can catch up to speed with life and/or find time to do something creative in the studio. That might be awhile since even though I'm home at the moment, I still have at least three more long distance trips to make in the next eight weeks! But hey, taking all those photos was creative in and of itself, so I get credit for it even if my studio door stays shut and my fabric/beads/craft supplies continue to collect a fine layer of dust.

Oh, I did start find a knitting project eventually. Didn't buy the yarn until I was actually across the pond but I started a hat while in England. It was a good project to do during long train trips. I didn't have a pattern, I was just "winging it." I got as far as the rim and "body" of it and then chickened out of trying to finish the top because I wasn't sure how quickly to reduce the number of stitches for the affect I wanted. Now that I'm back home, I'll check some patterns and have a stab at it sometime soon.

In the meantime,

Artsy Travel Photo #1

This fearsome head carved in Bath stone is thought to be the Gorgon’s head, which was a powerful symbol of the goddess Sulis Minerva. It resides in the temple room in the ruins of Roman baths in..... big surprise here.... Bath, England. I had a new camera and I'm still working out how to get sharp images in low light settings. That's why this picture is a bit blurry. Blurry but I still liked it. Click on it to see it full sized.

My son and I are off on a grand adventure in the morning to New York, England, Scotland, Wales, maybe even Paris. I'm all packed except for one thing - I 'm trying to come up with a last minute knitting project to pack in my carry on. I'm assuming it would have to be small wooden or plastic needles to be allowed on the plane. Hmmmm....

We'll be back in a month, so don't forget to check back in June to see if I can finally spend some time in my studio, both the real one and the cyber one. While we're off seeing castles and standing stones and eating fish and chips and tea, I hope everyone has a wonderfully creative and productive month of May!

I found my fourth needle.

Yah me!

I had planned on bringing some knitting along to do in the early stages of Noel's labor. I packed the needles but no yarn to go on them. Uhm, yeah. That'll work. NOT. So that morning on my way to the hospital, picking up a Starbucks for strength and energy, I spied a Joann's in the shopping center across the street and said "Aha!" Or something similar to that. Maybe it was "Goodie!" or "Hurray!" It's a bit fuzzy now. But anyhoo, I drove on over and the sign said they didn't open for another twenty minutes. TWENTY MINUTES! Do you know how long that is when your daughter is at the hospital and about to go into labor (she was being induced) at any minute!? It felt like two hours. So after the first hour, er, first ten minutes, I got out of my car and stood in front of the glass front doors trying to look as forlorn and damsel-in-distress-like as possible. It worked. The manager opened the door for me.

I discovered that when your brain is all a-buzz with excitement and nervousness over an impending grandchild is not a very good time, on the spur of the moment, to decide on a new project. Scarf? Nah, don't need any more scarf stuff. Hats? Maybe. Baby stuff. Oh, yes, good idea! I looked at the pattern books but they all looked like Egyptian hieroglyphics to me - not because I can't read a knitting pattern but because my brain wouldn't let me settle on any of the words long enough for my eyeballs to understand them. But eventually I decided, even though I have never ever knit a sock in my entire life (I've attempted several but never made it past the cuff), that I should knit baby socks.

I suppose there's some logic to starting out a sock knitting career by knitting a baby sock. They're small. You work your way through all the steps quickly. Of course logic also told me that starting with a Yule Stocking was the best choice because you only had to make one sock and you didn't need to worry about making a second one coming out the same size. I still haven't finished that project, but there are evil cats to blame in large part for that delay.

Here are the colors I picked out and here's how far I got on the first sock before Noel's labor kicked into a more serious gear that necessitated my active involvement. As you can see, it was a very fast labor, lucky her.
I unpacked this project this morning and discovered I have a couple of unexpected problems. First, a small carton of orange juice broke and got the knitting a bit soggy, although a quilting magazine absorbed most of the liquid. The pattern book is missing altogether, which saved it from the orange juice, but I hope it turns up since I hate spending money on patterns. It's probably in another suitcase. One of the needles is also missing and I have less hope that I'll find it since there's no reason it wouldn't be with the other three. The needle that was missing was actually one that had stitches on it. I think I caught up all the stitches again on the empty needle, but I'll have to make sure the stitches are all turned correctly and put back on their proper needle sets, although that's a moot point until I find the missing needle. I'd just pull it all off and start over but I'm feeling sentimental about having done those stitches while at the birth.

If I ever find the needle and ever finish even one pair of socks, they aren't actually very baby sized even though the pattern says they should fit a 6-12 month old. They're obviously more toddler sized. So, good. I'll have more time to work on them.

Moving on.....

I should just change the name of this blog from Laume's Studio to Look at What Laume Bought! Sigh. I know, a studio implies that there's some creative work going on in it. And I will. Eventually. Post England (we leave in 9 days!!!). I promise. I also promise to get back to work on my Nanowrimo Novel. And you don't have to bug me about that one because William is already doing a very good job of harassing ..... er, encouraging me to get back to work on it. In fact, just this morning, I made a deal with him. If he memorized his multiplication tables, I promised to go back to work on my novel and write at least an hour a day. (I'd love if he won this bet, but I'm pretty sure he won't bother.)

Oh, so, anyway - Look at what Laume Bought!

I went back to the same Joann's while on a post birth Starbucks run because they had a huge weekend sale going on and I never ever manage to be in the vicinity of a Joann's during one of their sales.

The bottom row is just quilting fabric that caught my eye for one reason or another.

The top row are all flannels, again, for receiving blankets. Look at the lighthouse and anchor one on the left and the fishies one on the right. Since my next grandchild's daddy is in the Navy, these are perfect! And I couldn't resist the Mexican food one because the whole family loves to go out for Mexican food and besides, when you wrap them up, they so look like little burritos. My favorite though is the sweet little garden pictures and words. It's much cuter then it looks in the photo. And now I really need to stay away from the flannel section for the rest of my DIL's pregnancy. I mean, a baby can only use so many blankets before they outgrow that bundling stage.

Here's some more fabric, this was from a trip up to Lake Almanor to drive around the lake and enjoy the lovely spring weather that finally arrived last week. It's all just "because I liked it". All FQ's except a 3/4 yard of the stripe because I love to use stripes for bindings and sashings and framing stuff. The three on the left go together nicely, although I didn't plan it that way.

That's all. Now I'll go wash it all in my new washing machine and finish unpacking. If you find a lone 2 pointed 3.25 blue metal knitting needle laying about, let me know, wouldja?

Recently I've bought a bunch of art quilt and collage magazines. Bought them. Paid for them. Carried the bags home. And haven't had the time or energy or focus to look at any of them. Tonight I finally stumbled upon the latest purchase, the Summer 2006 issue of ClothPaperScisscors, and browsed through it during commercials through a couple of family television shows. In the back was a page discussing a new quiz and challenge. You took this quiz on their website and it tells you what "kind" of artist you were. They did say that it was all to be taken with a grain of salt, but still, I could see from the multiple choice answers offered what general themes they were aiming at representing - they labeled them The Spontaneous Artist, the Grunge Artist, the Integrated Artist, and something along the lines of The Did You Take This Test Accidentally? Artist. The challenge then proposed that you do a piece in the style that the quiz labeled you and then turn the work over and do something opposite or different to the other side. Sounded fun, interesting, and I'm a sucker for online tests....

My answers were about as evening spaced between the four types as possible (since you can't divide 10 evenly by 4. You can't divide 11 evenly by 4 either, which I know not only because I'm smart that way but because I felt I could go either way on one question and so I wrote down both of my answers.)

I felt....... cheated? Frustrated? Annoyed? Not at the quiz so much. At myself. It figures. That's me for ya. Balanced. Stable. Able to see all sides of a question. But when it comes to art, maybe it's not a good thing to be too balanced. I mean, if I could be inspired to go in four different directions - for argument's sake let's just call them East, West, North, and South - what will happen? Well, I'll tell you. Usually, nothing happens. If I can't make up my mind, I can't start. If I can't commit or feel overwhelming compelled (or at least a teensy bit more compelled) to go with one particular project/style/direction over another, then I usually stall in the "coming up with good ideas" stage of creating.

Now to my credit, I'm damn good at this stage. Probably because I spend so much time in it. But it's considerably less rewarding to tell people about all your great ideas then it is to show them some of your great ideas come to fruition. And again to my credit - some ideas do end up making it all the way from idea to completed work. Usually because there's a deadline, or people watching me, or some sort of other guilt producing, outside pressure to perform. The real issue here is that I'd like more of my ideas to become more then just ideas.

Completely contradicting what I just said (I'm very good at living happily in a world of contradictions - bouncing around like a little yin/yang ball), I've just finished up a large number of stressful projects that have been screaming at me from my to-do list for months. I've also come back from several trips and in two weeks I'll be gone again for an entire month. So at the moment, I've given myself permission to do absolutely no art at all and to feel completely guilt free about it. It feels soooooo damn good - I can't tell you how good! Ironically it actually makes me feel like I want to do something creative.

But no. I'm probably not going to race into the studio and be a whirlwind of productive creativity. Nope. Instead I'm gonna try to bring my gardens under a modicum of control. Just enough to keep them from going completely back to wilderness while I'm gone this spring (spring - which finally arrived yesterday thank heavens!) I'm gonna try out my new washing machine. I'm gonna sort through clothes and knicknacks that have been pushed into abandoned piles for months (or in some cases, years). I'm gonna make an itinerary for our trip to England, reserve a B & B or two, make a list of things to bring and things to see. I'm gonna organize my bookcases. I'm gonna scrub some floors and wash some windows.

Or maybe I won't do most of those things and then grin about it guiltlessly. But when I get back from across one of those big, blue, wet things, I'm gonna give some serious thought to this inability I seem to have to committing to a style. Try to come up with a plan on how to deal with it. Hey, maybe I'll make myself one of those old fashioned spinners and just go with whatever project the arrow lands on. Of course, this will involve deciding how to make the spinner in the first place......

Sigh.

I wrote this post before I left for Sacramento and the new grandbaby, so some of it doesn't make sense because it talks of things that will be happening that have actually already happened. Does that make sense? But, instead of messing with it, I'll just post it as it is and use the extra time to get something else more important done, like unpack the car. Here ya go:


This is a good ol' fashion show and tell day. I want to show and tell all about my most recent fabric finds. I didn't really get any of it in the midst of my recent girlfriend getaway. Instead I found some on the way there, some on the way back, and some the day following my return.

These are all flannels. I found all but the orange tie-dye one at the textile warehouse. I thought they were all so cute and different from the boring stuff you usually find for babies, I want to make most of them into receiving blankets for my upcoming grandkids. The orange one will be for Anastacia. If I'm lucky, I might even manage to get it done tomorrow so I can bring it down with me for the delivery this week. (Noel is going to be induced on Friday morning.) The rest, except for the pink and green teapot one, are for Joe and Lisa's December baby, who will certainly need more receiving blankets then a spring "valley girl" baby. The plan for the teapots are for them to become a flax heating bag or two.

All of this quilting fabric I found at the textile warehouse too. Notice the selection theme - BRIGHT! About half of them were purchased with something in mind, the other half simply because I liked them. I'll figure out what to do with them eventually. Remember, you can click on the photos and get more detail.

Except for the teensy bit on the bottom righthand corner (which are from the photo layout above) and Fred Weasley, the rest of these are thrift store finds. The bright plaid on the left and the soft pastel plaid on the right are pillows I bought, not fabric. The green and orange thing on top is a tiny old-fashioned apron with pockets all along the bottom. I think it would look cute hung on the wall and used to store things in all the pockets. Not sure where it will go yet. The green striped and the white and blue striped are really, really large pieces of soft, heavyweight, nubby cottons. Not enough to do an entire chair in, but perhaps throw pillows or seat covers or tablecloth and napkins or....... not sure but couldn't pass up any of it. Everything in the photo was tagged from only two to four dollars!

These are quilter's cottons, found them at Walmart amongst the Easter and spring holiday prints. I'd gone looking for the tie-dyed flannels (all had been sold out except for the orange piece in the first photo), but I liked these. Usually this sort of mottled pattern comes in only dark or bright colors. I decided some day I'd certainly need these. In fact I want to do a small spring something with colored eggs in it and these would be perfect for what I have in mind. Of course with all the studio time I'll be able to carve out of what's left of this spring season, maybe I'll make it in time to enjoy it next spring, eh? Or the year after that?

Well, gee, it's fun just collecting the stuff. Hubby says between the fabric and the books, it keeps the house well insulated.

Several weeks ago I found an old spring based rocking chair. It was painted cherry red. How could I resist. At the time I thought I was buying it with the accompanying cushions, which were overstuffed and covered in an lovely, old-fashioned floral print. Alas, it wasn't meant to be - as I was taking things apart to fit into the back of the Subaru, I realized the pillows were priced separately. I didn't want to get the saleswoman, an elderly woman who was clearly just "helping out the owner", in trouble, so I did the right thing and brought the cushions back inside. I was annoyed when a few days later I pulled the receipt out of my jean pocket and discovered that despite being a good samaritan, I'd accidentally been overcharged twenty dollars for the chair. I don't get up there much, so I haven't had a chance to try to get a credit back on that and I don't even know if there will be any record to prove how much the chair was supposed to cost. Sigh.

But moving on, I love the chair. I few days ago I made it to a textile warehouse and bought some big pillow forms and upholstery fabric to make new cushions. Originally I was looking for something as similar as possible to the old-fashioned floral of the original cushions, but I ended up coming home with the prints below instead.


My absolute favorite is the big fruit print. I wanted something that would match what was already in my livingroom, but not be predictable or too ordinary. I also liked the subdued leaf print with the matching stripe. And last but not least, the dark paisley. Originally I thought I'd make simple covers with a slit up the back so they'd be easy to remove and wash, using different prints for different seasons of the year. But then I realized it would be more practical to put zippers on the side so that they would be reversible and last longer. I have enough fabric to make both sides in the fruit print. I'm gonna use the leave and strip print as opposite sides in the same set of cushions. And the dark print I'll match up with a dark solid of some sort I already have stashed away. Of course, none of the actual sewing will take place until I can finish up all my other projects and travel plans in the couple of months.

I don't think I've shared any pictures yet of Garret's quilt, have I? I didn't want to spoil the surprise. Since my #2 grandson didn't come into our lives until he was about five months old, he didn't get a quilt at birth like Joshua did, or like the soon to arrive Anastacia. So I made this slightly larger quilt for him for his birthday this month. Unfortunately my machine wouldn't cooperate and now I doubt I'll be able to finish it until after I come back from traveling in May. But I did bring it down to show my daughter and she said "The colors are sooo Garret." I was really pleased because I had the same reaction after I laid out the blocks and first saw it "together" - it just seemed to express his happy, mellow personality.

It's all layered and pinned and ready to be sewn or maybe even tied. The photo below shows the cute "animals driving cars" print I used for the backing. Again, Fred was helping with the display, sort of a feline Vanna.

While on the subject of scarves, take a look at the pretty, pretty, pretty present from my friend Deirdre. Fred (aka Fred Weasley, aka Fred is Red, aka Evil Kitty) has graciously agreed to model it for me. It's a poly velvet, wide and long and lush, just shy of being big enough to be called a shawl or wrap. It looks great with a jacket and blue jeans, takes an ordinary outfit just a step up in snazziness. With the blues, greens and purples, and the silky feel, it's like wearing water - quite appropriate for an Otter Girl. The artsy part of it, apart from looking artsy in it, she hand dyed it herself.

Here's the promised pic of the finished Spring Scarf. It's fuzzy but not too warm, just enough for a light chill. When wrapped like this, it hangs down just above my waist, so it's pretty long. I have about 2/3 of a skein left. I'm thinking I'll use up some white yarn I bought accidentally and make a hat, and then trim it with the rest of this fuzzy pastel. Now, I just have to find that white yarn. Hmmmm, I think I might have returned it, now that I think about it. I looked for more skeins of this, but they had sold out. So now I have to go buy white yarn? Or maybe just save the extra for fairy hair or a baby hat. A baby hat! Good idea. If I can find a pattern, I can take it down and work on it while I'm with Noel in the hospital. She's due to be induced this Friday. I'm getting excited about meeting this new little person!

I finished my scarf last night, just in time to use it on my Girl's Getaway Weekend. I'm taking off the minute I push "publish post" and plan to have a wonderful time. I'll take lots of pics, including one of the new scarf.

The one bummer, I didn't get another project done in time to bring down for my grandson's first birthday. The sewing machine was being a monster. I finally gave up and will have to settle for showing my daughter the gift unfinished and then bring it back home and have a long talk with the aforementioned machine about the responsibility of tight stitches. No eyelashes! No tangles! She's not a beauty contestant for crissakes, she's a sewing machine.

Okay, gotta run!

Well, drive. It's too far to.... nevermind.

Y'know, this blogging thing is very time consuming. Take this morning, for instance. I wanted to show you a picture of something I'm working on, and I wanted to compare it to dyed eggs. I knew I had several lovely photos of baskets full of colorful eggs that my kids and I have made over the years. No problem. I'll just find one. SEVERAL HOURS LATER......
Although I can see the pictures clearly in my mind, I can't find them!! I did, however, find a photo of my son Joe as a baby wearing a football outfit, which I looked for in vain about a year ago. And the one of my yard full of quail that I couldn't find when I wanted it a few months back. Here is the only photo I could find with colored eggs in it. The one good thing is it gives me a good excuse to show you this adorable picture of William when he was just a wee thing. After you're done going "Ahhhh, wasn't he cute!", let your eyes wander down to the lower lefthand corner of the photo and check out the pastel colored eggs.

Now, check out what I'm working on, a project I've dubbed my "Spring Scarf". Hey, if it insists on continuing to be cold and dreary and rainy and snowy (again, last night, sigh) in APRIL, then that gives me more then enough justification to need a spring colored scarf. Aren't the colors delectable. Like.... hey, I think I bought a bag of pastel colored malted milk ball eggs.... just a minute.....

AHA! In the bottom drawer of the desk. So, okay. I'll just go scarf down a bunch of.... I mean, I'll go work on my scarf.

I'm past due to show what I did with my Simple Still Life project for March. This was my first month participating and I got off to a good start by taking a lot of photos of possible choices early in the month. You can see them here. The idea is that you expand on the photo, changing it in some way photographically, artistically, or use it as the basis for a work in a different medium, whether that be a sketch, a textile piece, a painting.... Of course being busy and frazzled and sidetracked and... did I mention busy? I settled for doing something simple with it, although I do like the results.

Here's the photo I decided I liked best:


I like it a lot, just the way it is. It's simple and makes a nice statement about the beauty of useful things. But since it seemed like cheating just to stop with the original photo, I messed around with it a bit in my Kodak photo program. Not many options, but I came up with this, and I have to admit, I rather like it as well. It makes the tools seem witchy and symbolic. A broom for wiping the cobwebs from the sky (or riding in it), a rake for dancing in the garden, and a shovel for digging deep into the dark and quiet earth. I call it "Magical Tools".


If you'd like to see what other participants did with this month's theme - Three the Same but Different - go here.